little kite

East coast girl with your sun tanned skin

Salt in your hair, kissed by the wind

You're wild and free to live and let be

Strings let go you'll soar and sink low

Follow the river away from the sea 

Float the Savannah, back home to me.

I once wiped the tears of a young girl's eyes 

Real life is tested by whether we cry.

Feel and allow it, for though there is pain 

A life without contrast is one built in vain.

Salt and fresh water, shadow and light 

Opposing angles build houses upright

I sit in my own house, thinking of you, 

little kite tattered, lost in the blue

I bottle my question and fling it to sea: 

Were sandcastles and kite flying only for me?

Rainbow Sprinkles

 Rye's art & snack session was set up like this. 

Look closely at those pencil leads, it will be important later. 

Sugar is brainfood...it was a perfectly nutritious snack...stop judgin' me :)

 Sprinkles make ya sweet...

...and Sprinkles are inspiring! 

Yes...just a shirt & training pants... it's what works for us... 

~Sugar Lips~

Okay, time for the story. 

I bought a container of sprinkles in hopes of convincing Riley to broaden her culinary horizons. Currently, she and Buddy the Elf share a similar palate. 

Yes, sprinkles are made of sugar too, but if you shake them over, say, Mashed Potatoes or Chicken Nuggets then sugar becomes a lesser ingredient. Especially when compared with most of her current preferred favorites, like "Big Chocolate Cupcake Cookies" (a.k.a. Reese Cups) and Pink Ice Cream. 

 It isn't an exact science, but it has met with some success. 

So, Riley had a little bowl of sprinkles during her art and snack session and needless to say, when she was finished I had a living room full of rainbow colored sprinkles and some artwork to add to Riley's portfolio.

BUT... I didn't clean the mess up.. I had to run to a baseball game for Chandler.  I left the chaos to be dealt with upon our return. 

The thing is, by the time we returned- it was dark. Riley had fallen asleep in the car. I tucked her in and went quietly to the living room to clean up her 'creative explosion' from earlier. I left the lights off and vacuuming til morning, opting for the quieter method of sweeping sprinkles from the coffee table into my hand. 

Who can resist sprinkles, I ask you?

Not me, that's for sure. 

Absentmindedly, I licked a few clingy sprinkles from my fingers  as I walked the lot of them to the wastebasket.

"These taste like PLASTIC!' I thought to myself.

and 

"That's what I get for buying sprinkles from the Dollar Tree."

I had brushed the remaining sprinkles into the bin and returned for the pencils when it dawned on me:

"OH! I bet I just ate colored pencil leads..."

I opened the little container of sprinkles to taste-test my hypothesis: 

If they tasted like plastic, I knew my menu expansion plan would need to be adjusted- a more expensive brand of sprinkles sought and bought before we could proceed with sprinkling the scrambled eggs in the morning. 

However, if they were sweet, as sprinkles should be, I would know I had just tasted the rainbow... quite literally. 

Well...

If they had been sprinkles, I wouldn't be telling you this story.

 I'd simply say "Don't buy dollar store sprinkles"

As it were, I say "Learn from my folly" 

Colored pencil leads or  rainbow sprinkles? It doesn't matter- toss 'em out!

On Parenting...

HaHa- yes, exactly. 

Little Shadow Dancer

Everyone had gone to the truck, except Riley and myself. We seem to always be the last two in the car. There are a host of reasons, from finding a lost shoe to re-packing an understocked diaper bag. We've recently added "Load Rye's purse" to that list. That was one of the reasons we were lagging on this day.

We took the elevator down one whole flight...18 steps worth of space... to the parking lot ; not because it is faster, rather because it is a safer means of travel for those of us with both hands and a foot full.
As we exited the elevator, Riley spied her shadow in a shaft of sunlight. She and her newfound friend commenced a dance promptly.

DIY Laundry Detergent

DIY Laundry Detergent

"It's better, cheaper & smells fantastic...MAYBE" 

Basically, one of everything pictured(below):

Washing Soda

Borax

Baking Soda

Grated Pink Zote Soap (or FelzNaptha)

Epsom Salts & Scent (or scented softening crystals) (2 boxes equals proper amount)

Oxygenated Stain Remover

DIY Laundry Detergent Ingredients

I will start by saying that my results may be different than the glowing review of the recipe I followed because I used varied ingredients. I am not convinced that any one substitution made would change my overall experience with the results. The substitutions are as follows: 

1 Bar of Zote Soap instead of 2. The package looked like 2 bars in one wrapper, so we didn't bring enough home. I don't believe there would be a major difference even if the second bar was added because it seems that this soap doesn't dissolve very well before the washer has started- there are always chunks of it still floating about. 

Epsom Salts & Scent in place of softening crystals ~per another DIY recipe. Mixing essential oils with epsom salt was a prescribed substitute for using less chemical product and making the total price lower. No dramatic softening can be detected.  Any noticeable scent is from the Pink Zote soap. 

Competing brand of Oxygenated Stain Remover in place of OxiClean brand- for lower cost. 

One warning that I did not read anywhere was that the Zote soap would get so dangerously hot. 

Be Warned! 

 The recipe I've linked says heat it for a minute to dry it out... it took much more time than that. I would heat it and flake off the dry parts once it had cooled enough to touch, then heat again & repeat the crumbling process. 

Zote Soap Not Cotton Candy 

It cost a few cents less than $20  to follow an online recipe and give this fad a try.

According to the prescribed measurements, the cost came out to about $.07 per scoop. It is cheaper if you use only one scoop, but one scoop has not seemed to be in some of our loads.
Perhaps our water type has something to do with this.

At this point, my results have not been more remarkable than pr-emade detergents, even Value Brand powdered soaps, which if bought on sale comes out to roughly the same cost per load...  I have not come to the conclusion that it is both cheaper AND better  concurrently. Maybe cheaper but not better. Or better but not cheaper. Only, not both at the same time.

 We are still evaluating it on various types of laundry. Chandler believes it is a miracle concoction, as his baseball pants got pretty clean. The baby clothes with food stains weren't as easily cleaned. Before I give up on making it again, I am experimenting with water temp and scoop sizes. I will have to discover something dramatically different to warrant grating anymore Zote soap.

5 Gallon Container of DIY Detergent

I Feel Pretty

Riley can reach the make-up drawer now... and she has paid close enough attention to get the general idea. 

When all was said and done, I lifted her to the mirror and said "Aren't you pretty?" 

She said "I'm a mess!" 

Oh, yes.
 She is. 

Lovey Gets A Bath

Grammy gave "Lovey" to Riley when she was born.

This large, loveable pink pooch has been through various moves and times of storage; as well as plenty of playtime with Rye.
Because of all the living and loving evident in Lovey's fur, we recently took him to the local laundromat for a quick, sudsy spin and a fluffy air dry... Riley cheered Lovey on the whole way, Fisher cheered Rye on.

Riley and Fisher have similar dispositions towards their stuffed friends-simply put, stuffed animals are real... and the cuter the stuffy, the more in tune with its feelings they seem to be... situations like being put in the washing machine are matters of survival, not just hygiene.

It's cute ~until something tragic happens, like a severed limb   (or ear!)   or a spill over of stuffing or something... you would think we'd lost a family member in the trauma unit should something like that occur. (There was a light stuffing leakage on this day and ALL of my kids thought we'd lost Lovey.)

So, imagine our motley Brew Crew hauling Lovey, the Giant Pink Puppy into the Laundromat; moving from station to station as the mob that we are, creating all the necessary chaos to operate the machines, as we fight for the best 'seat' to watch the 'show'(or camera angle to take pictures, ::guilty gulp::) pummeling & elbowing one another from time to time when someone blocks our view...some of us cheering and shouting at the 'screen' like we were watching that Notorious College Football Championship instead of ...a WASHING MACHINE.

I tell you, we fit right in at the Laundromat! And I cannot wait to go back sometime soon, which we are going to have to do, because I still have sixteen dollars on the Wash & Dry card they make you trade your real money in for. Turns out the math they taught me in school did not cover properly estimating time & money in a laundromat that lists prices like a slot machine... blinky little screen things that they are!

I have got to add two little asides before you get your turn at "Watching-A-Washing-Machine" (sounds like a great new trend to start- quick someone, Pin This!)

1.) As we were talking about this adventure later, Rye said "Lovey go in the dishwasher!" (I think that might be worth a try next time ... I've been needing to mop the floor again anyway.)

2.) There is a thrift store that funds a local pet rescue a few doors down from the laundromat. As we waited on the dryer to finish, we moseyed down to see what we could see. When the lady at the door asked us "Are you looking for anything in particular today?" and I explained "No, ma'm~ we're just washing our dog next door, killing a little time as we wait for him to dry." It really WAS the right thing to do to specify that we were referring to a stuffed dog, but it would have been so much funnier to just leave it at "dog" don't ya think?

Whenever I Mop...

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Sometimes it is kool aid, other times an entire gallon of milk. This time it was the whole pitcher of tea...which I was really looking forward to, but did not resort to lapping from the floor... even though it had just been mopped a few hours prior.

Shoe Shopping w/Rye

While looking at shoes during our Saturday Evening Outing, Rye found a pair or two that she liked:

Afternoon Outing

Strawberry Milkshake 

On Saturday, after spending all day making flowers with the Big Girl, I took Little Girl out to run a few quick errands. And the thing is, they were truly quick errands... we were finished with daylight to spare... so we grabbed a bite to eat and had a make shift Mommy Date: 

Sweet Potato Fries in Browned Sugar Butter from Tasty's

Little Girl, Big Drink

The best time for gazing at this castle (What Rye calls it) ...I mean church, is when the sun begins to sink... even better if you step inside, where all the stained glass glows.

A little sriacha mayo & browned sugar butter were all that remained....

...even the sun was gone by the time we'd finished. 

A phone call from home told us that The Bigs were accompanying their dad on a baseball errand, so we didn't hurry home. Rather, we went 'browsing'. It's like shopping, only without spending money ;)

Rye picked a pair of shoes out on her own. She tried them on and declared "They Fit!" (video to follow)

She cried when we had to leave him behind.... she may adopt him yet.

Can't beat the "carry-her-up-and-tuck-her-already-sleeping-self-under-the-covers-by-9-PM " bedtime

Hot Tropics Tomato Soup

Ideally, I would have picked the tomatoes for this soup and stewed them down on a low simmer. I would have caught & plucked the chicken used for broth and set that on another low simmer. Not neglecting to milk my pet cow and a few coconuts too, I would have made sour cream, cocount milk and even the Cheeze-It ™ crackers from scratch. Eventually, finally, bringing it all together in a savory combination in one pot. 

This is not an ideal world. 

I have four children. (who all want something different for lunch, mind you)

I homeschool. (so I know about the dangers of using canned foods, I know!) 

I kill plants. (No tomatoes would have likely made it to the picking stage under my care)

I don't know that the cow would be that much safer. 

If I were close enough to a coconut tree to climb it, I wouldn't be rushing back to the house to make soup... (or climbing it either...but that is another story about how long it has been since I've been in the beloved Keys...and if I tell you THAT story, it will mostly sound like whining and I will become listless in my longing and neglect the reality of Everyone's Laundry...) 

Therefore: 

One can of coconut milk + One can of Harvest Orange Tomato + 1/2 Can of chicken stock= Tropical Tomato Soup

But, you can improve on this if you have the right ingredients.

(which I did, thanks to Chinese New Year)

Tropical Tomato Soup + Sriacha = Warm Tropics Tomato Soup...or Hot Tropics if you add a lot... Sun Burnt Tropics if you add half the bottle... and so forth. 

This was my lunch... and it was tasty.

 All of a sudden, my children decided they didn't want chicken fingers. 

They wanted soup too. 

So

I

 was 

 forced 

 to 

 share!

Don't you hate it when all those lessons about doing the right thing come back and steal your lunch? 

Mothers

As I was looking for something 'sentimental' of sorts, to mark my nephew's 5th birthday and to celebrate his mom and dad's 5th anniversary as parents 

(Reagan made them parents for the first ~but not last~ time) 

I came across this piece on motherhood. It seems to be an excerpt from a mother's day sermon at a church I've never been too.

It is a really good thought.

 It made me thankful for all the godly mothers I know. It also made me want to encourage those who may not value the calling God has placed on the life of a mother... especially friends and family who are moms but think that it doesn't count as much.

I hope you will be encouraged if you are a mom. I hope you will pass this on if you know any other mothers that need to be reminded... or perhaps told for the very first time.

And...if you happen to be a father? Well... there's something in there for you too 

:) Big Smiles Until We Meet Again